Egyptian Pantheon

[The Librarian]

writingwithlegends:

This list is by no means complete, but it does list many of the major Egyptian deities. All of these deities also have several different names and variations in spelling those names.

Geb: Geb is the god of the Earth. He lies flat on his back, with his wife bent over him. She is held away from him by the god Shu. His wife is Nut and his children are Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.

Nut: Nut is the goddess of the sky. She is bent over her husband, Geb, held apart from him by the god Shu. Her children are Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.

Amun: Amun is a god with a ram’s head that ruled over the wind. He was once king of the gods, and he later was combined with Ra as Amun-Ra.

Ra: Ra is the great Egyptian sun god and is often considered one of the most powerful gods. He was later combined with Amun to become Amun-Ra. In one Egyptian creation myth, Ra called all things into existence by saying their secret names. He is often depicted as a falcon with a sun disk on his head.

Osiris: Osiris is the god of rebirth, renewal, fertility, and the afterlife. He is married to his sister, Isis, and is the father of Horus. At a party, his brother, Set, asked Osiris to climb inside a sarcophagus. Osiris did so and Set killed him, chopped him up into little bits, and hurled them all over Egypt. Isis managed to put Osiris back together (except for his genitalia, which she recrafted for him out of wood) and resurrect him with her magic. Because of this, Osiris became associated with not only the afterlife, but the Nile itself. Every year, the Nile floods onto its banks and deposits fresh, fertile soil for farming, which allows life along the river to continue.

Isis: Isis fit the ancient Egyptian ideal of the perfect mother and wife. She is a goddess of nature and of magic and is associated with resurrection, as it is her magic that resurrected her husband, Osiris, when he was murdered by Set, and that allowed her to have her son, Horus. She is usually depicted with a headdress with a throne on it. Isis actually was so popular that the Greeks and Romans even worshiped her. Cleopatra and her family were actually Greek, not Egyptian. She actually was the first of her family to learn the Egyptian language and to actually behave and worship like an Egyptian. She heavily worshiped Isis and actually made herself out to be sort of “Isis on Earth”, making herself very popular with her people.

Set: Set is the god of chaos and desert storms. He is the son of Geb and Nut, the brother of Osiris and Isis, the brother and husband of Nephthys, and the father of Anubis. No one is entirely sure what animal Set’s head is supposed to look like, and it’s been compared to an aardvark, donkey, fennec fox, and a jackal.

Nephthys: Nephthys is the goddess of funerary rites and, like her sister, is also skilled in magic. She is usually depicted as a woman with a headdress with hieroglyphs on it or as a woman with falcon wings. She is the sister and wife of Set and the mother of Anubis. According to the Pyramid Texts, it was before her and Isis that evil spirits quaked with fear. While Isis was the birth mother of Horus, Nephthys nursed him. Like her sister, Nephthys also had some Greek and Roman worshipers. 

Anubis: Anubis is the god of burial and mummification and is usually depicted with a jackal’s head. He is the son of Set and Nephthys.

Horus: Horus is a god of the skies and is the son of Osiris and Isis. He directly opposed Set and often tried to avenge his father by fighting his uncle. In one story, Horus loses an eye to his uncle in a fight. The eye he lost became known as The Eye of Horus, or Wedjat Eye, and was used for protection and warding off the Evil Eye. He is usually depicted with the head of a hawk or as a hawk.

Hathor: Hathor is the Egyptian goddess of love and happiness. She is most often depicted with a cow’s head, or as a woman with cow horns with a sun disc in between them. She is the wife of Horus.

Ma’at: Ma’at is the Egyptian goddess of justice, truth, and harmony. She is usually depicted with a feather in her hair, or just as a feather. She is the daughter of Ra, and it is against her that someone’s heart must be weighed when they die. If their heart weighs more than the feather, their heart is devoured. If their heart weighs less or the same, they get to go to the afterlife.

Ptah: Ptah is the god of craftsmen and is usually depicted as a man carrying a staff.

Thoth: Thoth is the god of knowledge and writing. He is usually depicted as having the head of an ibis or sometimes a baboon. The Egyptians believed that Thoth gave them the knowledge of hieroglyphic writing.

Sobek: Sobek is the god of water and of crocodiles and is usually depicted with the head of a crocodile.

Sekhmet: Sekhmet is a lioness-headed goddess of destruction, fire, and war.

Bast: Bast is a cat goddess of protection.

~Victoria

Via